Simulator recommendation

[AA6YQ]

My town is considering a signficant commerical expansion, and I'd like to understand the implications on the performance of a particular intersection. I have recent measurements of all movements through this intersection from the state highway authority, and projected traffic increases from the project's advocates. I'm aware of TransCAD Modeler and Synchro, but they're pricey for one-time use. I'd appreciate any recommendations for a lower-cost simulator still capable of producing accurate results for a single intersection with shared left/through lanes and detectors for actuation.

Dave

 

[ACtrafficengr]

I guess the cheapest thing would be to borrow a copy of the highway capacity manual and crank it out by hand.

HCS is $1000. Still pricy for a 1-time use.

Does your or county highway department have a traffic engineer? In NY State, we are required to provide technical assistance to towns. We can, however, charge for it.

"...students of traffic are beginning to realize the false economy of mechanically controlled traffic, and hand work by trained officers will again prevail." - Wm. Phelps Eno, ca. 1928

"I'm searching for the questions, so my answers will make sense." - Stephen Brust

 

[teeman]

I agree with the previous post. For a single intersection simulation packages are overkill,unless you need the simulation display for presentation purposes.

Doing the analysis by hand, is tedious and may require an entire morning, or longer to complete. However, it will give you a good understanding of what the critical issues are at the intersection.

The advantage of computerized analysis is suppossed to be the ability to evaluate a multiple options in a relatively short period of time. The problem with computerized analysis is the GarbageInGarbageOut factor. Many users simply aren't familiar enough with the methodology to determine if the results of their analyses are an accurate representation of intersection operation or just junk.